Swinging door.



" PATENTED E. J. B. WHITAKER. SWINGING DOOR.

APPLIUATION IILED NOV. 6, 1903.

DEC. 25, 1906.

ueaiw ELIJAH J. B. WHITAKER, OF NEWV YORK, N. Y

SWINGENG DOOR.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 25, 1966.

Application filed November 6,1908. serialro. 180,032.

To all whmn it may concern:

Be it known that I, ELIJAH J. B. VVHITA- KER, a citizen of the United States of America, and a resident of the borough of Manhattan, in the city of New York, State of New York, have invented. certain new and useful 1mprovements in Swinging Doors, of which the following is aspecification This invention relates to improvements in swinging doors, and especially such as are designed to be put in storm-houses, vestibules of buildings, and other places where doors are exposed to the force of the wind.

My invention consists, essentially, in the combination of a plurality of swinging doors arranged to open in opposite directions with an operative connection from one door to the other, whereby the opening of one door opens the other door in the o posite direction, and on one or both of the dbors I may placethe usual doorclosing spring and door-check.

The doors are adapted and constructed to be opened easily merely by a person pressing against either of' them and without requiring the person to operate any levers, gears, pulley-cords, or other contrivances, which are impracticable in the circumstances in which the doors are generally usedthat is, in buildings in large cities, where great numbers of people pass through the doors in a very short time, and such contrivances as just mentioned would delay the opening of the doors and render their operation so awkward to persons in a hurry as would result in blocking the hallways of the buildings.

By this invention, since the two doors are of the same size and shape, the windressure on both doors is equal and counter alances itself, so that I can dispense with the usual powerful closing-spring, which is made strong enough to close the door against a strong wind, and consequently renders the door very diflicult to open in still weather and can use only a light closingspring, just suflicient to swing the doors to and which opposes very little resistance to o ening the doors. Each door is also arranged to open only in one direction. In this country, where the practice is for persons to keep to the right, each door is arranged to open only on the right, so as to force people w 0 Wish to pass through to keep to the right, which is a great advantage in commercia buildin s in large cities, for it prevents the throngs 0 people going into and out of the building from interfering with each other.

Other features of the invention are eX- plained in the specification, referring to the accompanying drawings, in which F i ure 1 is an elevation of a pair of swinging oors arranged according to myinvention as seen from the inside, the doors being closed. Fig. 2 is a view of the same from above, but with the doors partly opened;and Fig. 3 is a horizontal sectional view, partly broken, of the closed doors to show the catches at the astragal moldings.

The door-casing 1 should preferably be set in a vestibule, storm-house, or other situation in which the swinging doors 23 will be Within the outer wallsof the building or within such storm-house or like structure, as is clearly indicated in Fig. 2, where the doors are shown as situated in a vestibule 4, and said doorcasing 1 is rabbeted at 5 6 to cover the edges of the doors 2 3 and revent the wind blowing through when sai doors are closed. Said doors'2 3 are respectively hinged, as at 8 9, on opposite sides, so as to open only in opposite directions, Fig. 2, and are so arranged as to respectively permit those persons to pass throughonly to the right where it is the custom to keep to the right.

Should the doors be erected in localities where it is the custom to keep to the left, they would be hinged in the reverse manner and so as to let persons pass through only to the left. At the meeting ed es, bi'it respectively on opposite sides, eac of said doors 2 and 3 is provided with astragal moldings 12 13, which serve both as weather-stri s and as stops to the other door, the astraga molding of one door becoming, in effect,when the doors are closed a door-post for the other door and preventing the pushing of either door in the wrong direction, as Wlll be hereinafter further explained. About midway of the height of each door is a catch 16 17, respectively arranged to enga e a corresponding socket 18 19 in the other oor. If an attempt'is made to 0 en the doors in the wrong direction, said catc es grip in their respective sockets and aid in preventing opening the doors. At the I topof each said door 2 and 3 are firmly'secured arms 22 23, respectively, and said arms are preferably ositloned so that the line joining the pint es of their res ective hin es and said arms make angles 0 substantia ly' forty-five degrees with the lane of the doors. Thus the line-'oining pint e of hinge 8 and the arm 22 an also the line-joining intle of hinge 9 and the arm 2.3 in Fig. 3 eac makes 28 29, having eyes which fitover said arms In order to render the doors self-closing, I prefer to place on one of them any of the usual doonclosing springs or combined springs and checks; but by reason of windpressure on one door balancing that on the other I am able to use much weaker doorclosing devices than are now necessary, and I can use such as ofler but little resistance to opening the doors. In the drawings 1 have indicated one of the doors provided with a very common form of door spring and check 30 and can of course use any other kind and can, if desired, place a door-closing device on each door. I also prefer to attach to each door about, midway of its height atape or chain of suitable material, the other end of whichis wound in an ordinary tape-spring barrel 33, fixedto the walls or partitions so as to make an angle of about forty-five degrees with the plane of the doors. Said tape or chain- 32 and barrel 33 are similar in construction. to the well-known spring measuring-tapes and. cases and require no further description. The urpose of said chain or tape- 32 is-to guard t e corner-spaces on the side toward which the doors 2 3 respectively open to prevent people from standing in said corners in the way of the doors, and thus also keep pedestrians to-the right.

As will be clearly understood from the foregoing description, a person wishing to pass through the doors, say, to the right of Fig. 2,

pushes against door 3, which opens easily, ecause-in whatever direction the wind may be blowing the windressure, if an tending to keep door 3 close iscounterba anced by the wind-pressure tending .to open door 2, the wind-pressure on'one door being communicated to the other door through the rod 25. Now the person opens door 3 to pass through,

thereby also opening door 2. As he opens said doors the said chains 32 wind up into their casings. Then,as he passes through, the door-spring 30, being strong enough to overcome the extremely weak springs of the said chains or tapes, swings the doors closed again. it is manifest that any attempt to open a door in the wrong direction presses the other door against it, so that the moldings 12 or 13 and catches 16 or 17 prevent the opening of said door in such wrong direction.

I am aware that doors have heretofore been constructed to open in opposite directions through the agency of gear-trains, levers, and other mechanical devices operated by cars as they pass by, alsothat gates have been constructed to be operated by persons pullin or in some other manner actuating cords, evers, and the like, whereby motion is ultimately transmitted to the gate, and I do not desire to claim any such constructions, since my doors are operated directly by the persons pressing against them without the aid of such contrivances.

' Now, having described my improvements, I claim as my invention- The combination with a vestibule of solid double weather and wind excludin pivoted at their outer edges at a istance within the entrance of said vestibule atleast equal to the width of one door, and provided with lapping means at their meeting edges so that one door may only swing inwardly and the other door outwardly, a rod operatively connected to one door within and to the other door outside of its line of pivoting, so that the movement of" either door in its permissible direction moves theother door in its permissible direction, whereby the wind-pres sure entering saidvestibule canact only substantially normal to the said double doors and the pressure of the wind on one door is neutralized by its pressure on the other door without'interfering with the opening or closing of either door, substantiall as described. Signed at New York city t is 4th day of November, 1903.

ELIJAH J. B. WHITAKER.

Witnesses:

HARRISON T. SLOSSON, D. WALTER BROWN.

doors 

